1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to manufacturing objects and, in particular, to manufacturing aircraft. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for joining composite fuselage sections to each other.
2. Background
Aircraft are being designed and manufactured with greater and greater percentages of composite materials. Composite materials are used in aircraft to decrease the weight of the aircraft. This decreased weight improves performance features such as payload capacities and fuel efficiencies. Further, composite materials provide longer service life for various components in an aircraft.
Composite materials are tough, light-weight materials created by combining two or more functional components. For example, a composite material may include reinforcing fibers bound in polymer resin matrix. The fibers may be unidirectional or may take the form of a woven cloth or fabric. The fibers and resins are arranged and cured to form a composite material.
Further, using composite materials to create aerospace composite structures potentially allows for portions of an aircraft to be manufactured in larger pieces or sections. For example, a fuselage in an aircraft may be created in cylindrical sections and then assembled to form the fuselage of the aircraft. Other examples include, without limitation, wing sections joined to form a wing, or stabilizer sections joined to form a stabilizer.
With fuselage sections that are cylindrical, the dimensions of the fuselage sections are important to provide a desired fit when joining these sections to each other to form the fuselage of the aircraft. For example, the ends of two fuselage sections are joined to form part of the fuselage of the aircraft. The shape of these ends should match as closely as possible.
A difference in the shapes of the ends may result in an undesired fit. Differences in the shapes of the ends may result from different causes. For example, variations from design specification in manufacturing the fuselage sections may cause an undesired shape at the ends. The fuselage sections are large enough that gravity may cause deformation that changes the shape of the fuselage sections such that the ends do not have a desired shape to be joined to each other.
This undesired fit may cause the fuselage of the aircraft to perform in a less than desired manner. For example, if the fuselage sections are joined with the undesired shapes, the amount of fuel used may increase from undesired airflow that may occur during flight. Also, undesired airflow may cause increased noise that may reduce pleasantness of the flight experience for passengers.
Currently, operators on the manufacturing floor move ends of the two fuselage sections next to each other for joining. The operators measure the differences in the shape of the ends using tools such as feeler gauges. Changes to the shape of one or both fuselage ends are made using jacks or other tools placed and operated by the operators to push on the fuselage sections to change the shape of one or both of the fuselage sections.
The currently used process for joining the fuselage sections is time consuming and labor intensive. Additionally, the shapes of the two fuselage sections may be close but may still not have a desired level of fit between them.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a method and apparatus that take into account at least some of the issues discussed above, as well as other possible issues. For example, it would be advantageous to have a method and apparatus for joining fuselage sections for an aircraft with a desired level of fit.